Waiting for the Nor'easter

[rolanni]

Hmm. Total predicted snow accumulation from tomorrow's storm four to eight inches, plus a call for high winds. We'll hope the power stays on.

Today was catch up day. The filing is almost done; the SRM winter catalog is ...in process, and the Nameless likewise.

Also, we are in receipt of an Amendment to the Boskone Schedule. We will be signing at 5 p.m. on Saturday instead of 11 a.m. on Sunday. All else is as it was.

In going through the Boskone master schedule to identify those panels I'd like to attend (yeah, I'm a social disaster; I go to panels at conventions), I came across the following:

Friday 7:00 pm Gardner: The Heroine's Journey

Dorothy, Lolly, Jiriel, Telzey, Podkayne, Lessa, Pyanfar, Roman, Miri, Kel, Coraline.....where (and why) are they going? How do they there? Do they make the trip for knowledge, justice, love, or something else? Does their journey resemble any we might make in our own seemingly more ordinary lives?
Esther Friesner, Rosemary Kirstein, Joshua B. Palmatier, Tamora Pierce (m), Cecilia Tan

...and don't know whether to be horrified or amazed. In any case, I'd actually like to attend this, but -- I'm moderating another panel at the same time. Such is life. Or at least parts of it.

Progress on the Book Without a Name

27,780 / 98,000 (28.3%)

Comments

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Horrified over what? The fact that somehow, being male, I'm supposed to say how my heroine's journey may resemble something in my life?

If I was the only male on that panel, I'd be horrified on my own behalf. Or at least Deeply Wary. *g*

Seriously, I do think that all our characters (male, female, turtle, tc'a...) have something to teach their writers. We've all had the experience of finishing up with a particular character or scene, stepping back into our mundane heads for the re-read, and feeling the visceral, "Whereinthehell did THAT come from?" (The prologue to Crystal Dragon is my current touchstone for that particular sort of wondering if it's time to call in the White Coats.) So, while we're not (I think) assassins, thieves, spies, master traders, or the like, something in us resonates to the outlawness, maybe, or the sense of power. After all, genre characters are larger than life, which is as it should be, since we so often require them to solve problems on a cosmic scale.

If I were attending the panel, I'd like to hear a discussion of those aspects of ourselves that we recognize in our characters after the book has cooled. I'd like to hear if any of the panelists have deliberately chosen to work with a protagonist and a path that are in direct opposition to what they themselves believe, the reasons for that choice, and if, in their opinion, the story succeeded. I'd like to hear the panelists' opinions of the teaching power of stories, since it seems implicit in the assignment as written that of course fiction is applicable to Real Life.

...and Tammy may be taking y'all in a completely different direction.

My initial amazed horrification, BTW, was seeing Miri's name in a list of Famous Heroines.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'll have to wait and see where Tamora takes the panel of course, but I like to go in with some notes/ideas at least. Thanks for the thoughts!